What to Buy in Germany: The 33 Best Souvenirs and Gifts

The three pillars of German prosperity are punctuality, practicality and pedantry. So it should come as no surprise that even souvenir shops in Germany sell practical items rather than trinkets for tourists, not to mention the brand-name shops, whose products last (and please) for decades. Don't worry about what to bring back from Germany: Kidpassage has collected ideas for the most valuable and original souvenirs for adults and children.

Finding a gift for a child in Germany is easy — the choice of toys is enormous, but also tricky — how do you choose between dolls, cars, play sets and construction kits? While considering your options, take a closer look at the win-win gifts.

1. Nutcracker Christmas tree toys

They are like a greeting from a Hoffmann fairy tale. Wooden nutcrackers will crack nuts, while glass ones make a nice decoration for the Christmas tree. You'll have no trouble finding a Nutcracker toy — you can buy one at the Christmas market.

2. Berliner Bär

It is not just a toy but a symbol of Berlin. It also has its brethren, the Buddy Bears, brightly coloured bear figurines. The real Buddy Bears have gone to cities worldwide, and more miniature replicas are available at souvenir shops in Germany.

3. Steiff bears

These soft toys from Germany are listed as a close relative of the Teddy bears. The company now produces other animals as well as children's clothes.

These are some typical souvenirs from Germany — but what should you bring for your children from different cities?

4. Gifts from different regions

If you're in Port Hamburg, look out for a Buddelschiff, a ship in a bottle, as a gift for a child. You can bring back a Wolpertinger figurine from Munich, a fantastic animal shaped like a rabbit with stag antlers and owl wings. From Düsseldorf, a souvenir depicting a Düsseldorfer Radschläger (a little man doing a cartwheel).

You can buy souvenirs and helpful and beautiful toys for children in Germany.

5. Children's wooden toys from Germany

Babies will love Heimes's mobiles and rattles, and two to three-year-olds will love Haba educational games, Goki pyramids and trolleys, Grimm's rainbow puzzles and simple Selecta building blocks. These toys are made reliably and conscientiously — things like this can be handed down from generation to generation.

6. Toys for older children

Imagineers will love the Schleich sets. There are knights, dragons, horses, seahorses, and DC and Marvel comic book characters. Children looking for special equipment will be delighted with a crane or digger from Bruder. As for the choice of dolls in the shops, there is an abundance of dolls and puppets. The German manufacturer Götz is one of the best known. This company's machines are made from the same plastic used in the car industry.

Finding a good toy is easy — they're available from brand-name retailers and regular toy shops.

7. PLAYMOBIL sets

Their selection of kits is vast — from princesses and unicorns to ghost hunters. If you're looking for a unique winter gift, check out the Advent calendars, crepes and Santa figures from the Playmobil collection.

8. Board games

Next to the toys on the shelves are boxes of board games. Famous German board game manufacturers such as Ravensburger and Zoch and lesser-known companies produce fun, colourful games that are more straightforward and complicated for schoolchildren. When giving such a gift, be prepared to keep your child company and enjoy the plot and details of each game.

Who can resist a chocolate bar in a brightly coloured wrapper or a hefty marzipan bar? Here are some of Germany's must-have sweets for children:

9. Ritter Sport chocolate

It is probably the most famous German chocolate brand. Square bars with nuts, fruit, cereals, biscuits, yoghurt and nougat — you can get a whole set of mini bars in different flavours or a few big bars of your favourite varieties.

10. Feodora chocolates

Chocolate assortments, sweet bars, festive sets — Feodora is a suitable treat for milk lovers and extra black chocolate.

11. Halloren Schokoladenfabrik candies

Germany's oldest chocolate factory keeps up with the times: it produces emoji sweets.

12. Leysieffe chocolate

Unusual ingredients are added to the chocolate bars: lavender flowers, cranberries, ginger and red pepper.

13. Niederegger marzipan

The Lübeck-based company has been producing marzipan for 200 years, and the number of marzipan types in its range has surpassed 200.

14. Haribo jelly sweets

Yes, you can buy them in any shop nowadays, but in Germany, the choice is wider: black liquorice circles stamped Pontefract Cakes alone can surprise a child.

Tip: For Christmas, candy manufacturers produce chocolate Advent calendars and Nicolaus figurines.

You could look for Alpine bells or national costumes when considering souvenirs from Germany. Or you could choose something tasty or useful — gifts like these appeal to everyone.

15. German sausages

You can buy classic Bratwurst, Bavarian Weißwurst, spicy Currywurst, unusual Mettwurst (an intensely flavoured sausage made from raw minced pork preserved by curing and smoking, often with garlic). You can bring sausages in a vacuum pack or jar, and they'll keep well on the road.

16. Mustard

The sausages, of course, need mustard — sweet Sußer Senf or spicy Scharf Senf. Händlmaier's and Thomy are considered the best mustard producers.

17. Beer

There are only two options here: choose from popular beer brands (Oettinger, Krombacher, Paulaner, Warsteiner, etc.) or sample local beers from different regions (Kölsch from Cologne or Altbier from Düsseldorf).

18. A beer stein or glass

A handy gift from Germany is a litre beer stein. The Germans believe it makes no sense to pour less than a litre. Choose from thick-walled ceramic mugs with lids, glass, crystal, or even pewter mugs. An alternative to a mug is a thin-walled pilsner glass. It retains the head longer and holds less beer, between 0.33 and 0.5 litres.

19. German wines

You can bring back an Eiswein from Germany, a dessert wine made from grapes frozen on the vine. Moselle dry wines are also good (the choice is best left to an expert who knows the years of good harvest in the Moselle Valley).

20. Wine glasses

Delicate crystal goblets can be added to the wine. German manufacturers with a name include Arnstadt, Nachtmann, Schott Zwiesel and Bohemia Cristal (the company is related to Bohemian glass producers in the Czech Republic).

21. Jägermeister

35% herbal liqueur is another famous German alcoholic souvenir. It contains 56 ingredients: not even connoisseurs can recognise them all by taste, and the liqueur's total composition is kept secret.

22. German cheeses

 

There are dozens of varieties of cheese in Germany. To avoid the hassle of choosing, you can bring a little bit of everything as a gift:

• Tilsiter is delicate and creamy;
• Aromatic, slightly acidic Emmentaler;
• Lactose-free Bergkäse (to be found in Alpine villages, not supermarkets);
• The nobly moulded Bavaria blu and Cambozola;
• Weisslacker cheese is an excellent appetizer to beer;
• The poetically sung Limburger and other cheeses.

23. Knives

To slice cheese, you need a good knife. And Germany knows what it's all about WÜSTHOF, Güde and Burgvogel knives from Solingen (Solingen is officially called the "city of blades") and Friedr. Dick (or F. Dick) will serve your kitchen for decades.

24. Frankfurt green sauce

It consists of eggs, oil, salt, vinegar and a dozen herbs. You can bring the herbs as a gift: packages of herbs for Frankfurter Grüne Soße are sold at markets. You will find sorrel, watercress, parsley, dill, melissa, basil, and the lesser-known chervil, borage, chives and bloodwort in the packs.

Tip: Knives, porcelain, crystal and other expensive souvenirs in Germany should be purchased from brand shops.

25. Porcelain

Treat your family or friends to fine German porcelain to transform a sit-down meal into a sumptuous lunch or dinner. The most famous is Meissen, produced by Europe's oldest porcelain manufacturer. Fürstenberg, Nymphenburg and Rosenthal porcelain are equally good in quality and elegance.

You know the names of at least two German cosmetics and perfume brands. But there are many more now.

26. Eau de Cologne

"Cologne water", invented in 1709, is now only sold in the Cologne perfume museum. But a modern version of the perfume, Echt Kölnisch Wasser No. 4711, is available in shops.

27. Care cosmetics

Nivea, Schwarzkopf and Essence are known worldwide, but it has long been noted that they are of higher quality in Germany than in Eastern Europe. In addition, it is worth paying attention to eco-cosmetics, represented by products from Lavera, Weleda, Logona and Dr Haushka.

Christmas markets in Germany offer all kinds of pretty souvenirs, Christmas decorations and fragrant baked goods. What should you look for on the stalls?

28. Glass Christmas tree toys

Krebs Glas Lauscha is a well-known manufacturer of Christmas decorations in Germany. The expensive but truly magical decorations can bring a festive spirit to a home.

29. Weihnachtspyramide carousel pyramids

The central part of these merry-go-rounds are candles and a propeller that spins from the warm air emanating from the candles. The decor can vary greatly, from a simple wooden windmill to a multi-tiered composition.

30. Räuchermännchen smoking men

These Christmas toys are trendy in Saxony. They are a figurine of a man with a smoking pipe in his teeth. There is a niche inside the figure where a smoking candle is placed. The smoke from the candle comes out through the pipe.

31. Musical toys

Music boxes that bring out the melody of Christmas carols are a very touching gift. For example, you can find such music boxes in the Villeroy & Boch collection.

32. Lebkuchen gingerbread

It's hard not to be confused here — Germany's a wide variety of Christmas sweets, and every region has its recipes. The fairs sell giant painted gingerbread, but you can also look for something special: round Nuremberg gingerbread, rectangular Aachen gingerbread with whole almonds or marzipan Frankfurter gingerbread.

33. Dresden Stollen

A dense, dry cake with sultanas, candied fruit and almonds only gets tastier from being left out for so long. A person who likes to fiddle with the dough can be given the recipe for this Christmas delicacy and the stollen.

Tip: Vintage Christmas decorations and figurines for crèches can be found at flea markets.

It takes hours to buy souvenirs and weeks to get to know the sights in Germany. If you still need to decide on an itinerary, look at Germany's collection of family holiday resorts to help you plan your holiday.